About Me

Wednesday, February 15, 2017

I love frequenting the boards at
www.WDWMagic.com. The fans are
(by and large) well-informed and engaged, and some of them have
valuable contacts that are well-placed inside the Walt Disney
Company.

On January 18, 2017, user danlb_2000
posted that a permit had been filed that day with the South
Florida Water Management District for Project 88 at the Caribbean
Beach Resort (CBR). Work was scheduled to begin this year (and be
completed in 2019) on seven new buildings at CBR. These buildings,
however, don't all seem to be well suited for guest lodging or hotel
operations. Here is a map he provided with the proposed buildings
circled in red:

CBR has long been rumored as a possible
location for a Disney Vacation Club (DVC) expansion, and the largest
building seems to be suited for that possibility. But this raises a
couple of questions:

Why would anyone want DVC at a
moderate resort with such limited dining and transportation options?

What's with all the small
additional buildings on this plan?

Speculation on new transportation
choices at CBR has been rampant since DVC was mentioned as a
possibility at that resort. There are seven bus stops at the resort,
and any bus heading to the theme parks stops at each and every one of
them before heading to the parks. For a resort that is actually
pretty centrally located, getting anywhere seems to take forever. But
there are a couple of solutions to that issue that have always seemed
liker no-brainers. If you look at a map, walkways or canals providing
boat transportation to Epcot and Disney's Hollywood Studios seem like
easy fixes:

Then the always well-informed (though
often cryptic so as to protect his sources) marni1971 chimed in,
saying, “Connection options are being pursued. I'd doubt it'll be
walking.” He also seems to be hesitant to commit to this being a
DVC project. Other sources, however, appear to be pretty sure.

The boats have issues, as well. Some
sources are claiming that getting the waterways to connect for boat
travel could be more trouble than it's worth.

And let's not forget, what's with the
little buildings?

On Monday February 13th,
danlb_2000 (this guy is on top of things!) posted that two new small
buildings were going in: one near the entrance to DHS (green circle),
and the other by the Boardwalk parking lot (red circle):

As the structure near DHS was right
next to the bus stops, many posters agreed that it could be related
to transportation. TiggerDad noted that while it did not align with
the park entrance, it lined up perfectly with a “construction road”
east of the parking lot. Dandlb_2000 took it one step further and
realized both of those things lined up with one of the unidentified
new buildings at CBR!

Now the speculation really kicked into
gear. A tram path? Bathrooms? Cable cars? An overhead walkway? Road
expansions? A trebuchet? People were starting to loose interest, but
good old marni1971 (the guy with the inside connections) kept posting
cryptic comments. Really cryptic; sometimes just, “Hmmm...” Then danlb_2000 put all of the maps together, including a proposed structure at Disney's Pop Century/Art of Animation Resorts:

The word “gondola” started floating
around. A lot. Poster monothingie noted that some of the buildings
looked perfectly designed as gondola hubs for changing direction:

At 2:01 AM EST today, marni1971 confirmed:
“It is indeed a gondola transportation system that's being planned.
A little odd I know given the central Florida climate and it's a
shame it's not a WEDway but it is a real thing.” And folks, let me
tell ya: if marni says it, you can take it to the bank.

So, gondolas may be coming to WDW as a
bona fide transportation option! I say may, because Disney plans
often change. But if construction hasn't begun already it at least
appears imminent, so I like our odds.

Now, let's be clear here: I'm not
talking the tiny four-seat, open-aired models that used to be in the
parks. I think this would be more similar to the Emirates Air Line
cable cars in London – enclosed, air-conditioned, multi-passenger
cars. London's have a maximum capacity of 2,500 passengers per hour
in each direction. Even at low speeds, the constant-cycle loading and
unloading could prove to be much less time consuming than bus
transportation, and better for the environment. My fingers are
officially crossed!